My own voyages into the world of Solo RPGs.

Special Announcement

Alright, so today’s session will be delayed and will be up either by the end of the day or tomorrow. Blame procrastination. However, that’s not why I’m making this.

I’m making this announcement because this session is going to be the first session I’ll censor. Now, what can possibly bring me to censor a session and how much of it will be censored? Well, thankfully, only one session right now. But I must tell you the circumstances of why.

The game I’m playing is a game set in World War II-era Russia, around the time they got backstabbed by Germany and they fought back. Due to the dwindling number of soldiers, Stalin, through the persuasion of famous female pilot Marina Raskova, created a couple of regiments containing mostly females. One of them, the 588th, are tasked with a… quite weird task.

Their mission is to go over and harass the Germans by regularly bombing them with their outdated airplanes. These are the chronicles of the Night Witches. A true, historical story. So, what scene am I censoring, you ask? Well, it’s a pretty minor scene at best, but it details a bit of sexism and misogyny in it.

Long story short, after one of the girls lies about their brother unit, the 218th, sabotaging their planes, the NKVD (Secret Police, essentially) began to crack down on 218th and coincidentally find them either undermining their sister unit or outright beating them up. And with that, you guys have found out what scene’s getting cut.

I didn’t know what it was like back in the days when the Night Witches took flight. I wouldn’t know if they just took jeers from their brothers-in-arms or if I somehow depicted something that’d happen then. Whatever the case, I didn’t feel… comfortable. I rarely get uncomfortable in roleplaying games, and when I do, I try to push through it instead and try to get out of my comfort zone.

But then the situation got worse. In a random roll, the woman who ‘ratted’ the 218th out wound up bringing some NKVD members with her and outright labeled them as committing treason through the sabotage of one of their own units. The police apprehend them and…

Well, do you know how well Russians back then took treason? I personally think they take it rather well. Isn’t that right, invisible air next to Stalin?

Okay, joking aside, they were pretty ruthless. I just came to the logical conclusion that the two guys would get executed. The end result though caused me to get a bit more uncomfortable. Especially since I wanted to steer away from that kind of Russian stuff that George Orwell warned us about in his books. But that’s not why I’m censoring it.

The reason I’m censoring it is because I fear it may make others uncomfortable. I ultimately decided to cut the scene out, and write a brief summary about the scene sans the uncomfortable bits. It still happened, but the details are glossed over. However, that isn’t to say I’m completely removing it either.

This post isn’t all gloom. I want to give you guys a sneak peak into the session I’m working on, and I figured that the deleted scene would do just fine. Now, if you don’t feel comfortable with the topics of sexism, physical abuse, and executions, I’d suggest not reading below. For those who are fine with it and want to dive right in, well, click the link below.

[Scene Roll: 1, Dramatic]

[Scene Goal: Avoid the 218th’s wrath!]

[Who are we focusing on? A: Sofia]

Sofia was getting ready to rest up for the night’s raid when suddenly, two guys bust down her door. They were from the 218th.

“You think you girls are so tough?” One of the two pushed her to a wall while another cracked his knuckles.

“Wh-what’s going on?!” She asked.

“One of our team mates got detained for some crap he didn’t do. We suspect that you or your preppy 588th had something to do with it. And I say, it’s time for a little revenge.” One of them said before he swung his fist at her.

Okay, I’m gonna say this right now. As you may have noticed from my Titan World game, I tend to swing a bit with the stats, like how I used a Move I didn’t have yet in order to intimidate someone, or using my agility for stealth. I blame the fact that, due to being raised on the more skill-heavy games like D&D and Vampire, I desire to use all the resources I have to improve my situation.

I’m not sure if that’s the System’s intent, encouraging creative uses for the same set of Moves, but I feel creative. I’m gonna see if Sofia act like a hooligan (I’m not making that up, that is a legit Move in this game. Hell, tempting fate is also a legit Move) to fight back.

[Act Like A Hooligan Roll: 5]

Sofia tried to fight back, but the two began beating her up. As soon as she was on the ground, one of them managed to stomp onto her leg. Sofia cried out.

“Go ahead, cry! No one will notice!” One of them said.

[Q: Does anyone notice? A: 5, yes.]

[Q: Who will it be?]

Alex?

Olga?

Ana?

NKVD?

A fellow 588th member?

Popov?

[A: 2. Olga]

“See? Now they’re sabotaging our own troops. This is clearly treason! Exact Stalin’s justice” Olga said. Suddenly, two members from the NKVD came and grabbed the two men.

“H-hey! What are you doing!?” One of them said.

“Come with us.” The NKVD member said. As they were escorted into another room, Sofia began sobbing. Olga came over and helped her up.

“Don’t worry. It’s all right.” She said. She tapped her waist with her finger. On the third tap, she blocked Sofia’s ears as two gunshots were heard.

I’m gonna try a Reach Out.

[Reach Out: 11]

Sofia let the world around her be silent. She looked into Olga’s eyes and saw a saviour.

“Th… thank you…” She said.

For the two effects, I take “Heal one harm” on her (she wound up suffering a 2-harm for being beaten up.) and “Add one to the mission pool.” Though, I think I messed up history now. I just had the Secret Police do what will essentially lead to a purge of most of 218th. If you recall, Russians randomly executing people was one of my conditions to Mark someone. And guess who’s getting marked because of that? That’s right, our dear old friend Olga.

Now I will roll a D12 to determine her fate: [9] Advance and Grow. Awesome! Yeah, I might have exaggerated with the marking system being a bad thing that happens to characters.

So, I think Olga’s advancement will be to gain a Regard for Sofia. A Regard is a relationship one has with a character or aircraft. If a task involves said person or thing as the target, the roller gets a +1.

Sofia held Olga in her arms as Olga coldly stared at the blood-splattered wall. Pull the thread, and it all comes down it seems. She smiled.